Rally Review: WRC Portugal

So after 4 weeks away, the WRC championship is back and we are in Europe. This time Portugal takes its turn and with its dusty roads and high attrition it's going to be interesting to see how the cars fare up.
Also Portugal brings a new driver in WRC2 but any Formula One fan will know straight away who it is. After his huge accident in 2011 Robert Kubica is back and hoping to gain plenty of experience on the rally circuit.
So let's go with round four.



Day One. 

In qualifying Dani Sordo took charge and won to gain the first pick for the start of the race. He chose 13th so that cars ahead of him could clean the dusty road ahead.

Stage One was about tyre choices. With Mikko Hirvonen and Jari-Matti Latvala on a mixture of the hards and softs. Mads Ostberg was on the hards and Sebastien Ogier the only driver to pick full softs.
The hards are more durable but the softs are quicker for a short period of time but degrade rapidly.
But these tyres will have to last for all the day's action.
Ogier made the softs pay off for now by posting the fastest stage time but Ostberg on the hards was only 4 seconds behind.

Stage two shows Ostberg's aggression to be the fastest but he makes a small mistake and hits a hill. Luckily the car is all okay. Ogier knows by picking the softs from earlier that his tyres will deteriorate quickly and he loses 3.9 seconds to Ostberg. Dani Sordo keeps up a fine form and finishes the stage 2nd quickest and stays third overall.

1. Ostberg 23:23.1
2. Ogier +3.9
3. Sordo +10.3
4. Hivonen +16.5
5. Latvala +16.8

Stage three is memorable for all the wrong reasons for Mads Ostberg after a stella run throughout the morning, right near the end of stage three confusion over a pace note leaves Mads clipping a corner and rolling the car 3/4 times leaving it the wrong way up. Luckily Mads and his co-driver Jonas are all okay. Ostberg though is out for now. Meaning that Ogier retakes the lead of the rally.



Stage four and five shows the roller coaster that the back of the field have to deal with. Martin Prokop is holding steady in 10th, while Andreas Mikkelsen is struggling with the lack of power steering. Meanwhile Sordo is trying to close up on Ogier,  however Ogier is still sitting pretty at the top of the table even with the soft tyres.

1. Ogier 49:33.0
2. Sordo +4.4
3. Latvala +11.4
4. Hirvonen +16.2
5. Neuville + 30.7

Day Two. 

Ostberg returns under rally rules.

Stage six starts with Thierry Neuville running into trouble. Clipping his left rear tyre on the wall, crushes his suspension and he too is out of the rally. Also out of the rally is Dani Sordo after an off. Latvala is over driving the car in a bid to keep his third place over Hirvonen, who is wild and wide at times. All the trouble in the midfield keeps the pressure off Ogier helping him retain the top spot.

Stage seven sees the Evgeny Novikov struggling with getting the best out of the car. He has been slightly underwhelming in this rally but is keeping good pace. Latvala is showing his confidence as he's half a second slower the Hirvonen but seems to have raised his game. Ogier as usual is speedy but consistent.



Stage eight sees Kosciuszko benefiting from the early runners retiring helping the mini climb slowly up the table. Ogier is the quickest through the stage.

1. Ogier 1:43:25.8
2. Latvala +14.1
3. Hirvonen +37.2
4. Novikov +2:51.6
5. Al-Attiyah +4:36.7

Stage nine sees Latvala losing ground to Ogier after running on used rubber.

Stage ten and eleven sees Prokop cruelly lose his 6th place position due to a broken drive shaft. He loses two minutes overall. Hirvonen is struggling to catch up to the VW's and we see the VW of Latvala lose time to his time mate Ogier.
Ogier however is still on fine form and take his fourth stage win in a row.

1. Ogier 2:36:55.1
2. Latvala +34.8
3. Hirvonen +1:08.5
4. Novikov +4:23.9
5. Al-Attiyah +6:19.2

Day Three

Stage twelve sees Al-Attiyah on course for his second top five finish even though the conditions are tough. Low light and excess dust is making it tricky for everyone. Ogier gets off to a slow start on the start line and loses half minute overall. To top off the VW's bad stage woes. Latvala has no traction and is only on two wheel drive. A big sign of a drive shaft problem.

Stage thirteen sees Hirvonen take 2nd place due to Latvala's drive shift problem. Ogier too is having a few niggles car wise but nothing close to what Latvala has, the clutch seemingly to blame. Meanwhile both Prokop and Ostberg are bouncing back after their earlier car problems. Prokop gaining two places while Ostberg gains a massive forty five places since his off in day one.



Service sees work begin on the two VW's to repair both the cars problems.

Stage fourteen sees Koscuiszko improving but a hole in the floor makes driving difficult. He manages to hold on to 12th place. Latvala meanwhile is now back up to speed after his repairs and is second fastest in the stage.

Stage fifteen is the power stage so extra points are on offer for the top three finishers. Hirvonen struggles in the stage but keeps on to an overall 2nd place. Ogier however capitalises on a fantastic weekend to take not only the three points from the stage but also the win overall. Ostberg gains two badly needed points after a bad weekend. Latvala takes the last point on the power stage.

1. Ogier 3pts
2. Ostberg 2pts
3. Latvala 1pt

Rally Portugal results
1. Ogier 4:07:38.7
2. Hirvonen +58.2
3. Latvala +4:04.5
4. Novikov +5:27.7
5. Al-Attiyah +7:43.5
6. Mikkelsen +9:39.8
7. Prokop +15:04.2
8. Ostberg +15:43.6
9. Al-Gassimi +15:56.9
10. Lappi +16:21.0



Drivers standings
1. Ogier 102pts
2. Hirvonen 48pts
3. Loeb 43pts
4. Ostberg 32pts
5. Latvala 31pts

Manufacturers standings
1. VW 121pts
2. Citroen Total Abu Dhabi 107pts
3. Qatar M-sport 53pts
4. Qatar 36pts
5. Abu Dhabi Citroen Total 27pts

So Ogier takes an hat trick of victories but with Loeb back in Argentina. Who knows what could happen. All I know is that I will see you again in a few weeks time for more rally review.

In the meantime you can follow me on Twitter @squiffany

Rally review: WRC Mexico

So after two rounds on snow and ice, rally is back in the much more warmer climate of Mexico. With its dusty rocky surface, it's going to be an interesting and challenging rally for all concerned.
And with no Loeb this time round the challenge is on to take the Frenchman's crown.

Day One. 

In qualifying it was Hirvonen who posted the fastest time. Meaning he got first pick of the road order. With Mexico being so dusty Hirvonen decided to go 13th and last out of the WRC starters.

Stage one and two were through the old streets of Mexico. With its tight turns and array of tunnels these two stages are visually exciting and usually full of incident. This year though was a clean run by all. With Ogier just taking the lead. But only just.

1. Ogier 3:19.5
2. Ostberg +0.3
3. Neuville +0.6
4. Hirvonen +1.1
5. Sordo +1.4

Day Two

Stage three started in earnest on Friday morning. Kosciuskzo was the early road sweeper in his mini. Rally Mexico also saw the return of Chris Atkinson. But Atkinson knows that he has picked a tough rally to start on. And it shows, when early on into the stage he hits a rock and now has major repairs to carry out in next service. Another person who had a bad stage three was the unluckiest man in the world Jari Matti Latvala who like Atkinson also hits a rock less then 1km into the stage, which breaks his wishbone and puts him straight out of Rally Mexico. Then in a major curse of three's. Eugene Novikov then loses a whole eight minutes due to an electrical problem.



Stage four and five causes a lot of frustration for Mads Ostberg and Novikov. Ostberg encounters a hole in the car floor, leaving him with visibility problems on the dusty Mexican roads. Then Novikov spends most of his drive constantly reporting to service about the state of his car from earlier. Novikov eventually decides to park the car. Thierry Neuville carries on from his earlier stages and puts in a cracking performance. Rally Mexico also brings back the return of Ken Block, after we last saw him in WRC last August and time has taken nothing away from him. He is putting on a great show stopper for the crowds. Ostberg after all his problems manages to take 6.7 seconds out of Sebastien Ogier's time.

1. Ostberg 27:3.9
2. Ogier +1.4
3. Hirvonen +8.9

Stage six is a 30km trek through some of Mexico's tough terrain. It also throws up an interesting crash with the car of Carlos Garcia Vessman crashing into the protective netting around one of the corners but when he tried to reverse out. He slipped past the netting and rolled into a 10 foot drop. Luckily he and co-driver is all okay. Stage six also sees Ostberg dropping 13 seconds to Ogier who now takes the lead of Mexico.

1. Ogier 1:00:4.2
2. Ostberg +12.9
3. Hirvonen +18.2

Stage eight and nine sees the return of Atkinson after his early morning woes. After he managed to get his battered power steering fixed. Neuville also impresses with a 2nd fastest stage time. Which sees Hirvonen start to play catch up with Neuville's time. Ostberg wins stage nine but Ogier still has the lead of the rally by 18 seconds.

 

Stage ten and eleven shows off some of the other WRC cars, with Martin Prokop doing well to hold on to 9th place. We also see the charge of Al-Attiyah who is desperately trying to break into the top five. Dani Sordo (Who we haven't seen much of in the race till now) is doing a fine job and is trying to wring everything that he can out of the Citroen but he's still struggling to catch up to Neuville. Ogier takes a little knock but only suffers a bit of cosmetic body damage and even with Ostberg taking four stage wins today. Ogier still leads.

Ogier also wins the short stages of twelve and thirteen.

1. Ogier 1:57:46.7
2. Ostberg +33.0
3. Hirvonen +42.0
4. Neuville + 1:07.1
5. Sordo + 2:40.1
6. Al-Attiyah +3:24.5
7. Block +4:46.5
8. Guerra +6:03.4
9. Prokop +6:25.4
10. Atkinson +7:15.1

Day Three. 

Stage fourteen starts of interestingly for Atkinson who suffers from the same problem as Ostberg when he develops a hole in his car floor causing him all sorts of vision problems. Al-Attiyah has a spin but manages to regain his composure and doesn't lose much time. Same can't be said for Sordo who suffers a slow puncture and has to drive carefully till he can change it. Hirvonen finally manages to take some time out of Neuville, a good 17 seconds or so. Ostberg woes strike after his clutch starts to fail. Ogier starts to absorb the details of Ostberg's problem and extends his lead.



After a break between stages, Ostberg's car can't be fixed and is out of Rally Mexico for the time being. This is the 3rd rally for Mads where he has suffered with technical problems which have hampered his drives.

Hirvonen suffers a slow puncture in stage eighteen just a 1km into the stage. Ogier at this point just needs to cruise to Victory.

1. Ogier 3:38:42.2
2. Hirvonen +2:52.4
3. Neuville +2:59.9
4. Sordo +4:45.2
5. Al-Attiyah +5:33.9

Day Four. 

Under rally rules Ostberg can restart the rally but is only really in contention for points in the power stage.

Stage twenty one is the longest stage of the whole rally at 54km and it can be a car breaker, which is what happened to the mini of Kosciuszko which gave up the ghost 40km into the stage. Atkinson though fairs a bit better, whilst trying to take time off Block. Block had to respond to Atkinson's advances but ended up 36 seconds slower the Aussie. Neuville and Hirvonen both tried to shed weight from the car in a bid to gain advantage over each other. Neuville though almost didn't make it to the end of the race when he fell into a ditch. Luckily he managed to get the car out but he lost 21 seconds in the process. So Hirvonen got his get out jail free card. Hirvonen took the stage win.

1. Ogier 4:14:17.8
2. Hirvonen +3:15.2
3. Neuville +3:44.4

Between the stages Ogier had a small problem with the sensor for the throttle but he managed to fix it before the last two stages.

Stage twenty two was the power stage. Ogier left his rivals for dust taking the full three points on offer. Ostberg managed to get some consolation out of rally Mexico and took home two points. Unlucky Latvala managed 3rd and a single point.

Stage twenty three saw the cars go head to head on track. But Ogier with sixteen stage wins is victorious and wins rally Mexico.

Rally Mexico results. 
1. Ogier 4:30:27.0
2. Hirvonen +3:28.9
3. Neuville +4:23.8
4. Sordo +6:06.7
5. Al-Attiyah +8:34.0
6. Atkinson +11:28.0
7. Block +11:48.3
8. Guerra +12:49.8
9. Prokop +14:29.0
10. Novikov +17:15.3

Drivers standings. 
1. Ogier 74pts
2. Loeb 43pts
3. Hirvonen 30pts
4. Sordo 27pts
5. Ostberg 26pts

Manufacturers standings. 
1. Citroen Total Abu Dhabi 87pts
2. VW 81pts
3. Qatar M-sport 37pts
4. Qatar 35pts
5. Abu Dhabi Citroen Total 23pts.

So is Ogier turning into the Loeb of Rally? Two wins out of three puts him in good stead for Portugal in a months time. But can anyone stop him?

With technical issues hampering everyone can we see a nationality other then the French run away with it?

We will find out more in a month's time in Portugal.

Until then you can follow me on Twitter @squiffany

Rally Review: WRC Sweden

So after an eventful Monte Carlo we are back on snow and ice for the rally of Sweden. It is also round two for Sebastian Loeb out of his four WRC visits this year. But can he really take victory in a place where Scandinavians rule and Loeb has only won once here previously?

So who's going to take the spoils? Ogier? Loeb? Or can the any of the Finish contingent take the race.
Let's find out.

Day one started with the qualifying stage. To decide the running order for the start of day two. So it was to be that Sebastian Ogier took the spoils earning him his choice of starting position for stage two. Ogier decided to start as far down the field as he could, leaving the others to clean the roads for him. One of these unlucky people was Sebastian Loeb, who finished eighth in the qualifying stage and had to start back in tenth.

Stage two is a challenging slippery stage with a lot of grip needed to get through it. Loeb had a bumpy time of it, using the snow banks to bounce himself round the corners, he managed to not sustain any damage whilst doing this. Mikko Hirvonen was extremely wild on the stage, pushing the car to the limit. This didn't pay off for him when he hit a snow bank and launched into a barrel roll. Luckily both driver and co-driver were okay. But the time they lost wasn't okay. Crashing in a place with no spectators, this left few people to help dig the troubled Citroen out of the snow and a crushing 25 minutes were lost along with Hirvonen's chance of winning. Mads Ostberg also had a bit of trouble on stage two, his though were relatively minor compared to Hirvonen's. Just a small amount of trouble with the engine overheating. Though this was fixed at service later on. Ogier was the winner of stage two.

Stage three showed a poor progression for both the mini drivers who had huge problems with both car and conditions. Loeb meanwhile was chomping  at the bit and was staying steady in second place.

Stage four at Vargassen is always a treat for the spectators due to Colin's crest named after the late, great Colin McRae which provided some great car jumps and thrills of speed for the drivers. Though Loeb and Jari-Matti Latvala didn't want to impress the spectators and chose to play it safe on their runs. Dabbing the breaks to make sure they got a smooth landing. Latvala later said that he was enjoying himself and gaining more confidence with the car. Ogier was building up his lead over Loeb in a stage where he struggled with gear shift problems. The stage however belonged to Ostberg who after gaining a twenty second penalty for his late stage arrival, managed to risk it all and win the stage outright.

Stage five brought trouble to Dani Sordo, who being notorious for his poor show on snow and ice didn't help himself by crashing into a snow bank losing four minutes in the process.

Stage six and seven proved to be a joy for Pontius Tidemand who with his local knowledge had managed to end day one of the rally in sixth place. Latvala however had a stage to forget when communication with his co-driver failed and had to drive blind for most of the stage. To say Latvala was fuming would be an understatement.

Stage eight ended the rally with a short stage that saw Loeb eat a little into Ogier's time cushion.

End of day two results.

1. Ogier 1:16:00:1
2. Loeb + 31.4
3. Latvala +33.1
4. Ostberg +42.3
5. Novikov + 1:11.1
6. Tidemand +1:22.1

Day three started with a busy day. Eight stages in all would be raced today on some fast terrain. Stage nine was the fastest of them all, Sagen. With the cars reaching an average speed of 115km on this stage. Sadly Tidemand wasn't going anywhere fast when he had to retire with engine problems halfway through after a fantastic day two. Latvala and Ostberg were having their own mini battle for the last place on the podium. This meant that Loeb could concentrate on maintaining 2nd place. Ogier comfortably took the stage nine win.

Stage ten was the most challenging of the day with huge jumps and a bumpy road surface. Ogier lost some of his momentum whilst trying to keep his time cushion and ended up losing 5 seconds to Loeb, luckily for Ogier that Loeb was also struggling and was 0.2 slower then Ogier. Latvala though had an epic run through stage ten winning overall and talking about how he was finally learning how the car leans and how he is getting it to work for him.

Stage eleven and twelve showed Novikov pulling in some great performances and maintaining a great pace halfway through the rally. Loeb finally claimed his first stage win of the rally in stage eleven but didn't make much of a dent in Ogier's time.

Stage thirteen was a rerun of Sagen, but this time with no fresh snow this meant that the rerun would be more difficult. Novikov was putting pedal to the metal and keeping up his strong run from the morning. Latvala was worried about Ostberg being quicker then him, but ended up managing to just edge him out. Loeb started to stray a little on stage thirteen and become slightly wild, but in a strange bit of coincidence managed to post the same time as Ogier.

Stage fourteen and fifteen and the battle for third place rages on. With Latvala this time being the loser. 3.1 seconds behind Ostberg and this included Ostberg having a high speed wobble near the beginning of the stage. This means with Latvala and Ostberg focusing again on each other, this left Loeb to enjoy the spoils of second place and following Ostberg's example also managed to have a high speed wobble. Ogier has a faultless performance in the stage and grabs both forest stage wins.

Standings at the end of day three.

1. Ogier 2:18:22.8
2. Loeb +26.9
3. Ostberg +57.7
4. Latvala +1:03.8
5. Novikov +1:43.5

The last day of Rally Sweden consisted of six stages including the power stage, so there would be plenty of points up for grabs. Stage seventeen had a huge covering of deep snow. Latvala had free reign from VW to fight for the last podium position from Ostberg. Ostberg now under pressure managed to deliver and just hold on to third place. On Loeb's run the snow started to fall but Loeb is a master, even with the tricky conditions and  manages to gain 3 seconds on Ogier. Taking the win on stage seventeen.

Stage eighteen and Latvala is pushing as hard as he can to gain on Ostberg, but he knows after his mistake in Monte Carlo that he has to bring the car home in one piece. Ostberg is still not backing down, flinging the car around the snow bank like bumper cars at a fairground. Mads manages to inch three tenths off Latvala's time. Loeb and Ogier stay steady.

Stage nineteen and twenty sees Dani Sordo have more major issues when he crashes. Though this time it is terminal and he is out of Rally Sweden. Novikov after a great rally and getting himself into the top six, crashes yet again. It's not terminal but he loses a massive ten minutes digging himself out. Ogier too gets himself into trouble by crashing into a snow bank, but lady luck shines for Ogier and he manages to get himself back on the road pretty quickly.

Stage twenty one sees more of the Latvala and Ostberg saga but this time they are both matching each other on pace. Loeb is realising that his poor start on day two has hampered any chance of getting close to Ogier and is starting to settle for a decent second place finish.

Stage twenty two is the final stage for Rally Sweden. It is also the power stage, meaning extra points are up for grabs and it's pretty tense for Ogier, Loeb, Latvala and Ostberg. But the stage goes off without incident from the top four and it's only Loeb who doesn't get any points in the power stage.

Power Stage results.
Ogier 3pts
Latvala 2pts
Ostberg 1pt.

So conformation of the results of Rally Sweden.

1. Ogier 3:11:41.9
2. Loeb + 41.8
3. Ostberg + 1:24.5
4. Latvala + 1: 30.6
5. Neuville + 5:06.4

The drivers standings after Rally Sweden

1. Ogier 46pts
2. Loeb 43pts
3. Ostberg 24pts
4. Sordo 15pts
5. Latvala 14pts

So can anybody stop the wins from the Sebastiens? Who knows. All I know is that I'm looking forward to some warmth in Rally Mexico after two races on snow.

So see you in a months time for another WRC review, but if you can't wait that long I'm also on Twitter @squiffany